Ubisoft's new anti-piracy system demands constant Net

This story was updated on January 28th as Ubisoft confirmed that Assassin's Creed II will feature the new DRM.

This story was updated at 5:50pm GMT with comment from Ubisoft UK marketing manager, Murray Pannell.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is little more than a war between games publishers and their customers. The latest entrant into said war is Ubisoft, which has announced a new digital rights scheme for most upcoming PC games it publishes: Players must be connected to the internet at all times during play, or they'll be kicked off their game. Call it a thank you for your continued, paid custom.

From the publishing giant's point of view, which has recently released Assassin's Creed II and is set to release Splinter Cell: Conviction later this year, it makes some kind of sense -- if games are being authenticated by its servers on a regular basis, Ubisoft can ensure all users are playing legitimate copies of their games.

But for the gamer, it has far more limitations than advantages. For example, the scheme makes your game absolutely useless if your internet gets cut. While no 21st century PC gamer would be caught dead offline, there are plenty of gamers who take their games on the road with laptops and netbooks. Plus, if your internet goes down for maintenance, look forward to a grim reminder that you don't actually own the game, but you're just renting it from Ubisoft: The game will pause until internet connectivity is restored.

Forget browsing the pre-owned shelves at Gamestation or heading online to eBay, you also won't be able to sell your game, because each copy has a single license, and that license is registered against your name. The potential loophole of selling your entire account isn't recommended by Ubisoft either, which say "your account features your personal data and cannot be given or sold to anyone."

As a miniscule plus point, players won't need the game's DVD in their computer (which has previously been used as an authentication method, but hackers typically get around it with a "no-cd patch"). Also, Ubisoft notes "saved games are also synchronised online so the user can continue playing from where they left off from any computer; at work, at a friend's place etc."

Wired contacted Ubisoft to ask what it thought its customers would think to its new DRM strategy. "We know that PC players are passionate about this subject and [we] expected to see this kind of reaction," Murray Pannell, the company's UK marketing director, told us via email.

"We truly feel that players will appreciate the advantages offered by the system -- advantages that were built based on their feedback -- and expect that they will understand that as a business we are making every effort to strike a balance between protecting our products and pleasing our customers with great games."

Almost any new DRM scheme that limits gamers is bound to receive mass online controversy. Electronic Arts drew the ire of PC gamers in 2008 when they announced that Spore could only be installed on five computers (which was upped from three after a fiery online backlash). The game went on to become the most pirated computer game of the year.

Electronic Arts is planning on using a similar system for the upcoming Command and Conquer 4, but there are rumours that an offline single-player only version will be available. Wired has approached EA for comment, but has not yet heard back.

DRM has become a thorn in the side of any PC gamer as copy protection has moved from a simple CD key to all manner of intrusive and annoying authentication processes. With no obvious solution, and as no game has ever evaded piracy, this will certainly not be the last we hear of digital right solutions.

Assassin's Creed II, which will be released on PC on 5 March, 2010, will be the first Ubisoft game to feature the new DRM, Ubisoft confirmed to Wired.

Edited by Nate Lanxon

Comments

And I assume that revenue, previously lost to these pirated copies, be passed to all future Ubisoft customers?

EA, move over.

Michael

Jan 28th 2010

Couldn't they just make it Steam exclusive?

Chris Lane

Jan 28th 2010

well... i know which game NOT TO BUY now

adam

Jan 28th 2010

Well What if i want to take my laptop out? or I dont always have access to the internet.

I dont oftern play games but this is just making me wonder why bother. Most people pay for there games, dont annoy the rest.

Mark Newland

Jan 28th 2010

With the invasive DRM solutions, there are more pro's to using the pirated version, as it will have a fixed executable that won't whine about the internet connection.

Also this raises an issue of privacy, they will know exactly what you play for how long. This might be very upsetting to some people.

Just make your games cheaper, most people just don't want or have the 50 euro's for a game, they will wait for the rpice to reach 35 euro's or lower.

If you really need extra revenue, make gaming gear!If EA had made little fluffy spore replica's from a players own creation, that would be a much better anti pirate approach.

Because they dont need the pirates to stop, only a small segment of that market has the resources to buy a game. They really just want money.

DRM's don't work, why waste all that money and public relations on somthing that is completly useless 5 minutes before global release?

Oh and p.s. a GOOD way is to allow only registered users to download Updates. Via a update manager (not a zipfile or equivalent), this makes it easier for registered users to get the latest versions and the pirated versions are stuck with the bugs...

My 50 cents (including a EURO to USD conversion) ;-)

Freezy

Jan 28th 2010

This will probably cause people to pirate the game (which no doubt will have the DRM stripped away hours/days after its leaked) than to promote purchasing the product.

I for one have just been switched from "buy" to ..."Really? Really Ubisoft? Really?...You think the crackers won't get past this DRM in a short time span? You honestly believe this will work? Well, I'm gonna "check" if they have."

Saps

Jan 28th 2010

This will probably cause people to pirate the game (which no doubt will have the DRM stripped away hours/days after its leaked) than to promote purchasing the product.

I for one have just been switched from "buy" to ..."Really? Really Ubisoft? Really?...You think the crackers won't get past this DRM in a short time span? You honestly believe this will work? Well, I'm gonna "check" if they have."

Saps

Jan 28th 2010

@Freezy

That update idea won't work. You might have noticed game cracking groups have started releasing full, cracked DLC's, how do you think they do that? The people in game groups are the best of the best in the software cracking community, you'll need to have something stronger than needing to grab a few downloaded files over a large proxy chain.

As a entrepreneurial reverse engineer and developer I can think of two serious but very complicated yet user-friendly ways to really end the piracy on pc games, but I'll keep them to myself till I can execute them myself. Sorry, not gonna spit out good ideas for anyone reading this to take credit as his own. ;P

I feel sorry for Ubisoft for having to go to such ends, but this won't work either. I'll keep buying though, and play with cracked exe/files. Support the makers of quality PC games, they deserve it even with dumb protection. :)

w00t

Jan 29th 2010

LOL more DRM fail. Predict a hack within 1 month of release.

DRMFTW

Jan 30th 2010

now i cant play ac2 i have no ps3 or internet at home congrats you just lost many customers two big thumbs up guys : D